Granite Bay Chipset [Archive]

Farmer

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

I've been doing some searching for a motherboard upgrade and thought this was it, specifically the Gigabyte 8INXP, but saw quite a bit of discussion at different sites of how this chipset is just to slow compared to the Intel PE series. Benchmarks seem to have Granite Bay boards quite fast. Just wondering what the thoughts here were? Later......

Colin

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

Hey Farmer welcome to PCStats! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif" border="0"> Granite Bay at stock speeds will most definintely be faster then the i845PE in everything. When it comes to overclocking though, Granite Bay does not seem to handle it as well though. Were you thinking aobut getting a new P4 mobo? Personally if I were you, I'd hold of, Intel is releasing their 800 MHz compliant P4 chipsets in Q1 (Springdale and Canterwood) and they should be cheaper. You'll probably want to get a Canterwood based system yourself because that chipset is targeted towards the enthusiast market. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

Farmer

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

Hey Colin, My son is building a new P4 system in Feb. and the Gigabyte 8INXP is the board he wanted to use. He is looking at something that can be upgraded for a while, new CPU, video card, etc. But some of the talk around the sites has been very cool towards this chipset. If the Canterwood chipset is comming soon, I might try and get him to hold off til then. My new system won't be til May or June and there should be lots of new stuff by then...... Thanx........

Colin

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

Hey Farmer... I have heard quite a few good things about the Gigabyte 8INXP, I'd love to play with one myself! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"> If you can talk your son into waiting, I think that would be the best move. Usually I'm not big on waiting (because I'm of the mentality if you wait, you'll never buy) but this time it's definitely worth the wait. Both P4 and Athlon technology will progress very quickly in the near future! << But some of the talk around the sites has been very cool towards this chipset. >> Hmm... Most reviews I have read have been opposite the GB is great but very expensive... That's the biggest problem with that chipset, the price.

Avid6eek

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

"P4 and Athlon technology will progress very quickly in the near future" Save yourself some money and go with AMD!!! They're systems perform the same as Intel's (faster in the near future) and are cheaper to build. AMD boards are upgradable for a longer period of time as well. We all know Intel releases new chipsets/FSB speeds every 3 weeks.

Farmer

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

Naw Shiznit, we will be sticking with Intel. Can't give you a good reason why, guess it's just the Ford, Chevy thing. Colin, you are correct, the reviews are really good. What I refer to was a thread I saw at another site saying there was not enough speed increase over a rdram system to justify the high cost of the mobo. And the board is high, but if were will to pay $399+ for GeforceFX than $240+ for this motherboard doesn't seem bad..... Twisted logic I'm sure........ Later......

Colin

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

Farmer don't worry about Shiznit, he's our resident AMD Zealot. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"> Farmer, there are a few things we have to understand about the i850E and the Granite Bay... First, the i850E is a regular desktop/consumer chipset that offers 4.2 GB/s of bandwidth and Granite Bay is a workstation chipset that offers 4.2 GB/s worth of bandwidth. With P4's, it all comes down to bandwidth and since both chipsets offer the same, they'll perform roughly the same as well. The reason why the i845 (DDR) based chipsets always performed slower then the i850 (RDRAM) is because of memory bandwidth. i845PE's can only supply a 533 MHz based P4 (which requires 4.2 GB/s) 2.7GB/s and as you can see, a P4 will be bandwidth starved on the i845's. Granite Bay may be slightly faster then i850E because DDR memory has lower latencies then RDRAM but overall they'd be about the same speed. There's one extremely funny twist though... IF Intel was to release a 800 MHz FSB based RDRAM chipset for their upcoming 800 MHz based P4's it would actually perform better then Springdale/Canterwood! The reason behind this is as RDRAM scales higher, it latency greatly decreases (kinda like how a P4 gets much faster with a slight CPU boost)! Because of a lack of high quality DDR400/PC3200 memory (that can run 2-5-2-2-1 at 200 MHz) DDR will now have latency problems... Oh well, why ponder what could have happend, Intel will not be releasing another RDRAM chipset.

Avid6eek

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

"Naw Shiznit, we will be sticking with Intel. Can't give you a good reason why, guess it's just the Ford, Chevy thing." That's all I needed to here. I know some people are still stuck on Intels Mhz myths, but that's okay. As for now I'm the AMD bum....that will soon change. I can guarentee that before this year is out, Colin will be running an AMD Proc. After all, he'll be scoring a big fat ZERO on all those 64bit benchmarks, and Colin can not live a zero as one of his benchmark scores....Maybe he'll buy an Itanium <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

Colin

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

Shiznit, honest sometimes ya go too far dude. Not everything Intel does is bad! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif" border="0"> Intel is not the largest semiconductor manufacturer because they're stupid. I think Intel doing exactly the same thing they did when the Athlon was about to be released which is wait and see. Other then the Athlon, AMD has not had much luck releasing new technology... I hate to say this, but I don't think many software developers will be jumping on the x86-64 bandwagon, AMD does not have enough clout. I sure hope I'm wrong though. Anyway I'm sure Intel will release an x86-64 based processor if they see the Hammer doing well... The Prescott is rumored to have x86-64 instructions built into the core but just disabled like how HyperThreading is on P4's slower then 3.06.

Avid6eek

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

"Intel is not the largest semiconductor manufacturer because they're stupid. I think Intel doing exactly the same thing they did when the Athlon was about to be released which is wait and see. Other then the Athlon, AMD has not had much luck releasing new technology... I hate to say this, but I don't think many software developers will be jumping on the x86-64 bandwagon, AMD does not have enough clout. I sure hope I'm wrong though. Anyway I'm sure Intel will release an x86-64 based processor if they see the Hammer doing well... The Prescott is rumored to have x86-64 instructions built into the core but just disabled like how HyperThreading is on P4's slower then 3.06" As for the first paragraph, AMD has gotten more patents than Intel over the past few years, so it most certainly has been developing better technologies, it just takes years to get these new technologies into actual products. Intel is the largest semiconductor because they happened to have the best products at the time of the computer boom. Because of that they have billions of dollars. That was more of luck, then excellent products. As for Intel releasing an x88-64 CPU....I highly doubt that. Intel already feels they can push everyone in the computer industry around. There is no way they'd break down and follow AMD, even if it is the right way to go. "Shiznit, honest sometimes ya go too far dude. Not everything Intel does is bad!" As for this comment, I know I go out of my way to argue against intel, but I'm only trying to help people. Intel keeps their dominance by pretty much forcing major computer OEMs to use only their products (once Dell offers AMD products in a non-bias way, AMD will take off). They have done some good things in the past, but this is the present. Specifically building the P4 Core to ramp up in speed and not performance just because AMD beat them to 1Ghz, is pretty damn pathetic. They knew that at that time everyone was concerned about the Mhz rating of a CPU and not the performance. That will eventually come back to bite them in the ass as they reach limitations to how fast you can get Silicon to go. Soon AMD is going to be competing with Intels CPU's at half the speed. With the introduction of their built on heat spreader, SOI, and lower clock speeds, the Hammer will most likely be the cooler processor. It's lower clock speeds and integrated memory controller is going to let it use lower speed (less expensive) memory without causing any bandwith bottle necks which will ( as Intel ramps up clock speeds) be an ever increasing problem for Intel. Rambus is dead, and soon Intel will be relying on DDRII technology to give it the bandwith they need. DDRII is going to be expensive at first, and like all new technology, full of bugs. All I can say is good luck Intel, and good luck Intel fans (and expecially their wallets).

Colin

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

You're right I don't think Intel would openly embrase x86-64bit technology, however if AMD starts to steal Intel's thunder, surely Intel will counter. They're all in the business of making $$$. Shiznit, I understand what you're talking about with the MHz myth, but you have to understand that IPC is not everything either. Intel and AMD are taking different routes with their processors. Remember, we need a good combination of IPC and MHz. I understand that you're pro AMD, but you shouldn't bash everything that is Intel. If Farmer is more comfortable with Intel and does not want to go AMD, couldn't you try to give him a hand without bashing his decisions? You have a lot of computer knowledge, but I honestly I think the fanboyism is being taken a bit too far.

Farmer

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

Whoh guys, I sorta expect to take a little crap about Intel and that'a ok. I'm a big guy, I can take it. To be quite honest I just don't know enough about AMD to make informed decisions. I know the performance of the nForce2 boards looks really great, but right now I really need stable, and in my head that means I have to pay a higher price for Intel. I'd like to put up the specs of the rig he wants to build and have you all take a look and see what you think.... Later...

Colin

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

Farmer, AMD systems are just as stable as Intel rigs... If money is not an issue, Intel will be faster in the end but AMD will definitely be the better value.

Avid6eek

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

If your looking for better stabilty, Intel is the way to go. The CPU's themselves are just as stable as one another, but Intel gets along better with other hardware, where as occasionally (although very rarly) AMD cpus conflict with certain hardware. Another thing is if an Intel CPU gets a little over heated, the CPU will just slow down. The Athlon on the other had will crash. This problem will probably be fixed with up and coming AMD cpus

Avid6eek

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

There you go Colin...some non-bias advice

Colin

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

Hey Shiznit sorry man... I was working on a DOA Iwill KK400-RS and I was really pissed off. Sorry if I offended ya dude. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif" border="0">

Avid6eek

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

Colin, you of all people should know that your opinions mean nothing to me <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif" border="0">

Colin

06-15-04, 02:25 PM

<< Colin, you of all people should know that your opinions mean nothing to me <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif" border="0"> >> LOL! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif" border="0"> Well I'm glad I got that cleared up... <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif" border="0">